Mark Kelly Urges New Yorkers: Don’t Vote Trump, He’s Too Pro-Gun

Spencer Platt/Getty Images19 Oct 2016

Gabby Giffords’ husband Mark Kelly is urging New Yorkers to vote against Donald Trump because he is too pro-gun.

Kelly, a gun control proponent like his wife, Gabby Giffords, specifically cites Trump’s support of concealed carry for self-defense in the wake of the June 12 Orlando Pulse attack. In that attack, 49 unarmed, defenseless patrons were gunned down in a gun-free zone.

Three days after the attack Trump suggested concealed carry could have stopped the Orlando attack or at least lessened the number of people killed. Speaking in Atlanta, Trump said:

If some of those great people that were in that club that night had guns strapped to their waist or strapped to their ankle–and if bullets were going in the other direction, aimed at that guy [for whom this was just] target practice–you would had a situation which would have always horrible, but nothing like the carnage that we as a people suffered this weekend.

He also said, “By the way, I’m going to save your Second Amendment.”

These statements did not sit well with Mark Kelly, who attended a gun control rally at City Hall in Manhattan. AM New York reports Kelly was “particularly appalled” by Trump’s suggestion that arming people for self-defense is part of the response to Orlando. Kelly said, “More guns isn’t the solution.”

Kelly also praised the expansion of background checks in New York, a state that now treats private sales like retail by requiring a background check for both. His wife lauded the expansion too, and claimed “the nation is looking to the Empire State for inspiration.” Neither Giffords or Kelly mentioned that the attacker who shot Giffords in 2011 passed a background check to acquire his handgun.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.